The UAE Cyber Security Council and Dell Technologies have opened a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence in Abu Dhabi. The partners introduced the center during Make it in the Emirates. They want it to strengthen threat detection, speed up response, grow local skills, and support homegrown cyber products. That gives the project a clear purpose at a time when governments want stronger digital defences and stronger local talent.
This partnership also aligns with how cybersecurity works in real life today. Attacks hit cloud systems, on-premises tools, connected devices, and critical services in one chain. That forces countries to think beyond one vendor contract or one security product. They need training, drills, local research, startup support, and trusted infrastructure partners that can stay in the market for years.
A cyber hub with a clear job
The new centre will use artificial intelligence, IoT, and cloud tools to improve real-time threat detection and response. That matters because security teams now face attacks that move fast and spread across many systems at once. The Council and Dell also say the centre will support critical infrastructure, which puts the focus on practical defence instead of broad promises.
The centre will also run advanced training and cyber simulation exercises. That part may matter most. Training and simulation give teams a safer way to test decisions before a real attack hits. The project also includes research and development support and a route for startups to bring locally built cyber tools to market. That adds economic value to the deal, not just security value.
The cyber pressure keeps rising
IBM says the global average cost of a data breach hit 4.88 million dollars in 2024, up 10 percent year over year. It also found that 70 percent of affected organisations suffered moderate or severe disruption to operations. In other words, cyber incidents now bring business downtime, customer fallout, and recovery costs that stretch well beyond the security team.
IBM also found that breaches across mixed environments averaged more than 5 million dollars and took the longest time to identify and contain. That helps explain why governments and large enterprises now want security that covers private cloud, public cloud, data centres, and connected systems in one plan. Dell’s role fits that need because the company already sells across several parts of that stack.
The World Economic Forum says 66 percent of organisations expect AI to affect cybersecurity in 2025, yet only 37 percent report that they assess the security of AI tools before deployment. ENISA, the EU cyber agency, says threats against availability ranked first in 2024, with ransomware and threats against data close behind. That mix puts more pressure on fast detection, skilled defenders, and tested response plans.
The UAE wants local skills and local tools
The UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy calls for stronger rules, a national incident response plan, protection for nine critical sectors, and partnerships across government, private industry, academia, and international groups. It also sets an ambition to develop the capabilities of more than 40,000 cyber professionals. The new Abu Dhabi centre speaks directly to that talent goal.
That focus on people is hard to ignore. The World Economic Forum says the cyber skills gap grew 8 percent since 2024, and only 14 percent of organizations feel confident that they have the people and skills they need today. A centre that trains local teams and runs simulations answers a real gap in the market. It does more than add another building or another logo to the cyber sector.
The startup angle also deserves attention. The Council and Dell say the project will help startups bring locally developed solutions to market. That supports a wider policy goal in the Gulf, where governments want sovereign digital capability, local IP, and stronger local supply chains in fields tied to national resilience. Strong cyber policy now depends on strong local execution.
Dell fits the partner model the council is building
Dell does not enter this project as a pure software vendor. It enters as an infrastructure company with reach across enterprise hardware, storage, cloud, and security operations. That gives the Council a partner that can speak to the full problem, not just one slice of it. In today’s cyber market, that breadth matters because public services and critical systems rely on many linked layers.
The Cybersecurity Council has already announced another partnership with Nozomi Networks to build an innovation and excellence centre in Abu Dhabi for OT and IoT security across energy, utilities, transport, manufacturing, and smart infrastructure. That shows the Council is building a network of specialist partnerships around national resilience, with each one aimed at a different part of the cyber problem.
The next step is delivery
The launch gives the UAE a practical cyber project with a clear brief. Now the real work starts. The centre needs to train people, test response plans, support local cyber firms, and help critical sectors improve readiness in measurable ways. If it delivers on those tasks, this partnership will strengthen both the UAE’s digital economy and its cyber confidence. That is the standard that matters.
